Thursday Night Observations

That was honestly one of the worst NFL games I’ve ever seen. Some of that was having the Cardinals plus 1.5 in the Supercontest, but the sheer pointlessness of the game’s last 55 minutes made it hard to watch even the condensed version.

Incidentally, why were the Cardinals, down 28-3 in the second quarter, punting on 4th-and-1 and 4th-and-3? Did they think they had plenty of time left to make up a 25-point deficit? Why were they running the ball on 2nd-and-1 into the teeth of the defense? Did they think it was important to pick up a first down? This whole coaching staff should be fired.

• Josh Rosen was under pressure, but even so he looked shaky, throwing three picks, two of which were taken to the house, 5.0 YPA and losing two of three fumbles. He also took six sacks and appeared to hurt himself in the closing minutes of the game. He throws a nice ball, but he was in way over his head.

• David Johnson looks like Trent Richardson out there – nowhere to run, and immediately seeking the thickest swarm of tacklers as soon as he touches the ball. It’s odd because he looked like Saquon Barkley two years ago. Maybe he’ll pull a Todd Gurley and be good again in 2019 when the team upgrades its coaching staff.

• The lone bright spot for the Cardinals was Larry Fitzgerald who looks healthy again and scored a TD. He’s not going to make big plays ever again, but he looked like the 2017 version at least.

• Case Keenum was passable, but gameflow killed any chance he had at a big game.

• Emmanuel Sanders had a big game – 7-6-102-1 and a 28-yard TD pass to Courtland Sutton. It was Sutton’s only catch on three targets. Demaryius Thomas went 6-5-42.

• Phillip Lindsay was the offensive star of the game, with 14 carries for 90 yards and a score and one catch for six more yards. Royce Freeman was largely stuffed – 13 carries for 37 yards.